Major special events: an interpretative literature review

This paper approaches the new subject of major special events. With an extended international evolution, major events are visible in the world economy but they form a controversial theoretical subject due to the lack of common accepted meanings, the reduced number of research papers concerning this subject, their inclusion in holistic or applicative research and their subjective analysis. The paper then reviews the existing literature as well as the cultural evidence in order to identify the reference perspectives in defining the concept of major special events. Thus, the research aims to bring an integrated vision starting from the meanings given in different cultural backgrounds and continuing with the analysis of the definitions and typologies in order to identify common and distinct elements. The research has a qualitative approach realized through comparative analysis method having as instruments the table and the figure. As result of the analysis and the interpretation, the paper finds out the cultural meanings of the event, the managerial perspective of defining special events and the accepted perspective of defining major event.